Silsbee-based company teams with Coca-Cola to create first-of-its-kind bottle

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It's in the plastic bottles you drink from, the carpet you walk on, the clothes you wear and in the fuel in your tank.

And a Silsbee company working alongside the Coca-Cola Co. is transforming that chemical into the first environmentally-friendly product of its kind.

Gevo, adjacent to the South Hampton Resources plant on Farm-to-Market Road 418 in Silsbee, is tinkering with the molecules to make the new product.

Plastic, commonly called PET - polyethylene terephthalate - is made of two components. The larger portion is paraxylene. Gevo developed a product, isobutanol, that substitutes for the paraxylene.

The product will help create the first 100-percent renewable plastic bottle, said Brett Lund, Gevo's executive vice president.

The typical plastic bottle - use once and toss - can last in a landfill for who knows how long. It's the same with roadside litter.

Lund said the goal is more than just keeping plastic bottles out of landfills. Gevo's product can be used as a fuel substitute, possibly replacing what currently comes out of gas pumps and decreasing the demand for imported oil.

The No. 1 supplier of oil imported into the United States is Canada, which has exported 2.5 million barrels of crude to the U.S. so far this year, more than double what has come from Saudi Arabia.

The United States imports about 40 percent of its crude supply from other countries and more than half comes from the Western hemisphere, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Gevo partners with Coca-Cola about two years ago.

"A lot of people think this new energy and chemical stuff we're doing here is pie in the sky and I go and talk to my former colleagues in congress and they say, 'Hey is this stuff ever going to happen?' Well, it's real," said James C. Greenwood, Biotechnology Industry Organization CEO. "What we're doing and seeing here today demonstrates that it's real."

Greenwood is a former six-term congressman from Pennsylvania. He left midway through his re-election campaign in 2004 to join BIO, a trade association that represents about 1,200 technology companies.

Scott Vitters, general manager of Plant Bottle Packaging Innovation Platform at Coca-Cola, said technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been available for years, Gevo has the potential to create it on a global commercial level in the near future.Patrick Gruber, Gevo's chief executive officer, said fully renewable PET can reduce dependence on oil and pollution associated with petroleum-based raw materials.

Paraxylene is the chemical building block that makes polyester, used in clothing fibers, textiles and packaging films.

"It isn't a hypothetical wanna-be. It actually is jet fuel - the real deal and that's the difference. People have not been delivering bio-based exact replacements before," Gruber said.

Lund said the petroleum substitute is a game changer.

Gevo already partners with Japan-based Toray Industries Inc., which invested in the plant and already has agreed to buy all the product.

"It's sold out before we even broke ground on it," he said.Most PET production is for synthetic fibers. Once the chemical is converted to bio-based PET, it could be sold to replace petroleum-based products. The company's product can convert existing ethanol production plants into bio-refineries to make isobutanol, which allows customers to replace petroleum-derived materials without changing equipment or production lines.

Gevo also can make gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from the plants. Lund said the company has a contract with the U.S. Air Force, which is testing the jet fuel. He said the U.S. Army will test the fuel soon.

Isobutanol isn't available on a commercial scale yet and the volume necessary just for Coca-Cola's water bottles would be huge. The Silsbee plant will help with supply.

Lund said he hopes to have isobutanol in a gas pump at a service station by the end of the year.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Friendswood, whose district includes Hardin County, said the innovation could help reduce crude imports, particularly from the volatile Middle East.

"As we know we're getting involved again in potentially another war. What you're doing, it may seem like a 9-to-5 job, but what you're doing is very critical for our nation's future."

Simon Upfill-Brown, South Hampton Resources president, said Gevo's progress is good news for the environment and for sustainability because isobutanol can blend into existing chemicals and fuels.